Pope Francis is to lead the Palm Sunday celebration from the Vatican City on Sunday.
Palm Sunday marks the beginning of the Holy Week before Easter.
The head of the Catholic Church is leading Mass in St Peter”s Basilica. Like the previous year, the celebrations have been scaled back due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Italy is continental Europe’s worst impacted country with more than 107,000 lives lost t COVID-19 and more than 3.5 million infections confirmed since the beginning of the outbreak, according to Johns Hopkins’ Coronavirus Resource Centre.
Half of Italy’s regions reentered lockdown in mid-March following a spike of infections blamed on the spread of new variants. These include Lazio, where the capital Rome and the Vatican are located.
The rest of the country will also be put under lockdown for the Easter holiday next week.
